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Biographical history

The Vancouver Coal Mining and Land Co. Ltd. was registered and incorporated in England under the Imperial Joint Stock Companies Acts (1856-7) in 1862. The VCMLC took title to the Hudson's Bay Company's interests, including all mines, machinery, buildings, sawmill, wharves, land and Newcastle and Douglas [now Protection] Islands in September of 1862. Under the VCMLC, mining operations intensified. By 1864, the Company was selling building lots. The Company had no local major competition until 1871 when Robert Dunsmuir began development of the Wellington Mines north of Nanaimo. The VCMLC developed and operated the following mines: Old Douglas Shaft (1862-1886); New Douglas and Chase River Mine (1874-1886); Fitzwilliam Mine (1872-1882); Southfield Nos. 1 and 2 (1882-1894); Southfield Nos. 3 and 4 (1888-1901); Chase River No. 3 Pit (1886-1894); Esplanade No. 1 and 2 (1881-1938); Protection Island Shaft (1890-1938); Northfield Mine (1889-1895) and Harewood Mine [1891-?). The Company had a number of notable Superintendants and Managers including Mark Bate, Charles Nicol and Samuel Robins. In 1889, the Company was reorganized as the New Vancouver Coal Mining and Land Company Ltd. In 1902, the Company was purchased by the Western Fuel Corporation of California which was registered as an extra-provincial company in December 1902.

Name of creator

Biographical history

Custodial history

The cash book, many of the administrative records and the transcript of the Bryden journal were donated to the Nanaimo District Museum in undocumented transactions and transferred to the Nanaimo Community Archives in 1993. The remaining materials were donated to the Archives by D.S. Isaacson in 1992 (1992 032 A) and Albert Diplock in 1993 (1993 048 A). Isaacson's father, S.V., was the Secretary-Treasurer of Canadian Collieries (Dunsmuir) Ltd. and had collected the materials to write a history of the coal companies. Diplock was a member of the Nanaimo Native Sons and collected the materials during the years when the Native Sons ran the Bastion Museum.

Scope and content

Fonds consists of records which document the operations of the Vancouver Coal Mining and Land Company in the Nanaimo area. Photocopied materials predominate but the fonds also includes some original records. The fonds is arranged in three series 1) Administrative records; 2) Journals and 3) Financial records.